Becoming a Star Student: Overcoming Fear of Failure

By Fred Sterk and Sjoerd Swaen

Becoming a star student: overcoming fear of failure

 

Fear of failure and test anxiety have a paralyzing effect on your academic performance. Without these fears, you could make much better use of your intelligence and a wealth of other talents and skills.

 

In this book, Psychologists Fred Sterk and Sjoerd Swaen show proven strategies to overcome procrastination, perfectionism, fear of judgment, stage fright, and test anxiety. They will help you to develop a growth-mindset and positive self-motivation.

 

Your love of learning and perseverance will improve significantly, which will allow you to achieve better study results and gain more self-confidence.

 

Psychologists Fred Sterk and Sjoerd Swaen are, in addition to their work as psychotherapists, bestselling authors of a series of successful self-help books. These are widely used as 'motivation books' in counseling and for study, work, and (self)coaching.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sterk Publishers
• Release date: Aug 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798223653417

Book preview

Becoming a Star Student

Overcoming Fear of Failure

Fred Sterk

Sjoerd Swaen

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Copyright © 2022 Fred Sterk & Sjoerd Swaen

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the prior permission of the authors.

Cover image: iStock

Sterk Publishers

The Hague, Netherlands

www.sterk-swaen.nl

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Important note This self-help book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice or professional treatment. Any person with a condition requiring medical attention should consult a qualified medical practitioner or a suitable therapist.

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Becoming a star student: overcoming fear of failure

Fear of failure and test anxiety have a paralyzing effect on your academic performance. Without these fears, you could make much better use of your intelligence and a wealth of other talents and skills.

In this book, Psychologists Fred Sterk and Sjoerd Swaen show proven strategies to overcome procrastination, perfectionism, fear of judgment, stage fright, and test anxiety. They will help you to develop a growth-mindset and positive self-motivation.

Your love of learning and perseverance will improve significantly, which will allow you to achieve better study results and gain more self-confidence.

Table of contents

Becoming a Star Student

Table of contents

1 Test-anxiety and fear of failure

Positive motivation

Self-control

Meditation/ Mindfulness: good for your brain

Summary

2 Thinking- and perception corrections

Fear: the concentration-killer

Advertisement slogans for yourself

Summary

3 Reasonable thinking and self-hypnosis techniques

The thought-observation exercise

Self-hypnosis: a concentration miracle

Relaxed, focused attention

Summary

4 A prescription for adjusting your attitude

Problem-solving attitudes

Change your study attitude

An anti-procrastination form

Love of learning

Summary

5 The abbreviated thought scheme

The balance between reasonable thinking and positive slogans for yourself

Take good care of yourself

Personal source of wisdom

Reasonable thinking in stressful situations

Tackling avoidance behavior

Compare study results?

Unconditional Perseverance

A process-oriented approach

Summary

6 Better than perfectionism

Overcoming disappointments

Dare to adjust your demands

Broaden your vision

Evaluate on different parts

Continuity in the production process

Do you demand success?

Success is positive

Summary

7 Overcoming speaking or presentation anxiety

Thoughts of fear and frightening images

Presenting is making contact

The power of introverts

Challenging anxious-thoughts

Success experiences and a presentation advertisement message

Practicing and preparing gives confidence

Answering questions

Anti-fear of public speaking techniques

Summary

References/recommended reading

Internet

Additional information

1 Test-anxiety and fear of failure

Fear of failure affects your self-confidence. And little confidence leads to poor study performance. The illusion that you are incapable of studying is very deceptive. Some people with test-anxiety also give their environment the false impression that they are totally incompetent.

Do not be fooled. People with test-anxiety have all kinds of negative beliefs about themselves. During exams, they feel helpless and powerless and think they can do nothing to positively influence their test results. If they do not know the answer, they panic and want to flee.

Their negative self-image becomes worse and spreads like wildfire across all areas in their lives where they must achieve something. Thus, all barriers become insurmountable obstacles. But underneath that fear of failure can be a wealth of talents, skills, and intelligence. In this book, we show how you can tap into these hidden positive wells of strength. Intellectual growth is always possible. You can change!

Disappointments and setbacks can lead to the idea that you can not control certain situations anymore and that you cannot change anything about your study skills or conditions. But, you can positively influence the chance of study success, regardless of your background and abilities at this time.

We hope to make it clear that you have more internal control than you think. You'll learn to think positively and purposefully and to look at failure experiences as valuable learning moments.

Fear of failure may increase due to negative feelings. Your mindset plays a central role. Thoughts or demands on yourself can become sources of tension. For example, students who don't allow themselves to make mistakes; or who forbid themselves from feeling nervous during presentations; or who only want to get the highest possible scores, live under a lot of pressure. Do you recognize this kind of demands?

Your mindset also determines how you evaluate your skills and capacities. An incorrect evaluation of your capabilities may cause that you have to strive too hard or keep worrying without achieving the desired results. People with a fear of failure focus far too much on their feelings of inadequacy and the idea that they study the wrong way.

Finally, thoughts also play a significant role in the assessment of situations. People may think very differently about the same situation. One person finds studying fun, and another thinks it just annoying and resents it. Regardless of how you think about studying, one can say that negative thoughts increase study stress, and positive thoughts reduce study stress.

How do you detect negative thoughts in problem situations? For example, you can take a moment to draw a puppet with a thought cloud over his head. Try to imagine why the puppet feels tense, formulate the thoughts that bother the puppet, and put them in the thought cloud.

Positive motivation

People need self-realization; they like challenges, gaining knowledge, and utilizing their skills optimally. Motivating yourself is essential to good performances and to learning more joyfully and carefree. Self-motivation also has a positive effect on your study skills, your relationships with others, and your prospects.

To motivate yourself, you can begin to analyze your wishes and desires. Why do you do the things you do? With a high pile of textbooks in front of you, a full schedule, an environment that whines about homework or results, you can quickly forget why and what for you are studying.

When you ask students and school pupils why they study, many of them answer that they 'must' study. Their parents, society, or school are telling them to do that. We humans find it annoying to do obligatory things. Luckily there are no real 'demands' in life; we live in a free world.

Every time we say to ourselves that we 'must-do' something, we will automatically revolt; this ensures that we can only accomplish the required tasks with great difficulty or often fail to achieve them. In retrospect, we feel guilty. But, what would happen if you changed your demands into choices? Free choices lead to willpower, 'must-power' does not exist. You want to achieve something.

You intend to do things because you want to get ahead, to learn something. Remember that you want to make progress voluntarily and that it will give you all kinds of advantages. Try to focus on your enthusiasm and positive, attractive goals. That works better than using pressure or demands to motivate yourself. Positive goals are better than commands and stress.

We often do not realize how much fun learning and working can be. If obligations are too important, we lose sight of our real motives for advancement. It may appear attractive to do nothing at all, but is that so? Studying can temporarily decrease your freedom, but have you ever realized what you get out of it; what it means for your self-development and career opportunities?

To study mandatorily is -if it is right- to a great extent, a voluntary learning process. Having an education means increasing your knowledge,